{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 56/1907-10-10/p003","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Anyone who speaks of secret science today, or even, as is our topic today, of the mission of secret science in our time, must be prepared to encounter a wide variety of reactions. On the one hand, we must not hide the fact that the mere utterance of the words “secret science” is enough to provoke the opinion among a large number of our contemporaries that that this is something extremely obscure, or, as people like to say, mystical in the worst sense of the word, something that can only arise or arouse interest in people with unclear thinking, at least in those who have no idea of what we call the great advances in the field of knowledge in our time. How many will tell you that the term “esoteric science” is only used by those who stand apart from the great advances in natural science or other fields of knowledge in our time. If, on the one hand, the mere utterance of the word “secret science” provokes some opposition, we must not hide from ourselves that there is much that is justified in such opposition. For, strange as it may seem — the whole series of lectures will show you what is meant — one cannot help but say it: The true secret scientist, who is conscious of not being an obscurantist in relation to the so-called advances in science or knowledge in our time, who wants to stand firmly on the ground of our contemporary culture and only go beyond certain of its superficialities, must, yes, he must say, in accordance with his intellectual orientation and insight into the circumstances of the time, that those opponents who speak as we have just characterized them are perhaps the less dangerous contemporaries for him, less harmful to his intellectual current than others who, in a certain respect, even count themselves among the followers, indeed the apostles, of so-called secret science. It is strange when something like this is said, but it is true.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"The Mission of Esoteric Science in Our Time","site_heading":null,"date":"1907-10-10","location":null,"word_count":334,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/56/1907-10-10/p003","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"eLib2015","book_title":"Knowledge of Soul and Spirit","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA056/English/eLib2015/19071010p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/56/1907-10-10/p003"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/56/1907-10-10/p003","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 56/1907-10-10/p003","passage_number":3,"text":"Wer heute von Geheimwissenschaft spricht, oder gar, wie unser heutiges Thema lautet, von der Mission der Geheimwissenschaft in unserer Zeit, der darf sich wohl darauf gefaßt machen, daß er den allerverschiedensten Stimmungen begegnet. Auf der einen Seite dürfen wir uns nicht verhehlen, daß das Wort «Geheimwissenschaft» nur ausgesprochen zu werden braucht, um bei einer großen Reihe unserer Zeitgenossen die Meinung hervorzurufen, es handle sich hier um etwas im höchsten Grade Dunkles, oder, wie man es gern ausdrückt, im schlimmsten Sinne Mystisches, um etwas, was nur entstehen oder Interesse er regen könne bei Menschen mit unklarem Denken, zumindest nur bei solchen, die keine Ahnung haben von dem, was man in unserer Zeit die großen Fortschritte auf dem Gebiete der Erkenntnis nennt. Wie viele werden Ihnen sagen, das Wort Geheimwissenschaft werde nur von denjenigen in den Mund genommen, die abseits stehen von den großen Fortschritten der Naturwissenschaft oder anderer Erkenntnisse in unserer Zeit. Wenn auf der einen Seite schon durch das Aussprechen des Wortes Geheimwissenschaft manche Gegnerschaft hervorgerufen wird, so dürfen wir uns doch auch durchaus nicht verhehlen, daß in solcher Gegnerschaft viel Berechtigtes liegt. Denn, so sonderbar es erscheinen kann — die ganze Serie der Vorträge wird Ihnen ja zeigen, wie das gemeint ist —, aber man kann nicht umhin, es auszusprechen: Der wirkliche Geheimwissenschafter, der sich bewußt ist, nicht Obskurant zu sein gegenüber den sogenannten Wissenschafts- oder Erkenntnisfortschritten in unserer Zeit, der ganz auf dem Boden unserer Zeitbildung stehen und nur über gewisse ihrer Oberflächlichkeiten hinausgehen will, der darf, ja er muß gemäß seiner Geistesrichtung und Einsicht in die Zeitverhältnisse sagen, daß diejenigen Gegner, die so sprechen, wie wir es eben jetzt charakterisiert haben, vielleicht die für ihn weniger gefährlichen Zeitgenossen sind, seiner Geistesströmung weniger schädlich sind als andere, die in gewisser Beziehung sich sogar zu den Anhängern, ja zu den Aposteln der sogenannten Geheimwissenschaft rechnen. Nicht wahr, es ist sonderbar, wenn so etwas ausgesprochen wird, doch es ist wahr.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":320,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/56/1907-10-10/p003"}],"english":["GA 56/1907-10-10/p003"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":320,"en_words":334,"ratio":1.04,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.02,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":7733,"original_word_count":7554,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"eLib2015","book_title":"Knowledge of Soul and Spirit","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA056/English/eLib2015/19071010p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 56/1907-10-10/p003"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}